Jack Hassard: Test-Based Reform: What Values are we Adding?
Guest post by Jack Hassard. You can read Part One here.
Practicing teachers, clinical professors, and researchers who work in the field know that assessing teachers or students requires much more than simply looking at test scores. And indeed, researchers who have examined the value-added assessment system which purports to measure the "teacher effect" on student achievement test scores, question it's validity and more important reliability.
The Data Used to Make High-Stakes Decisions on Teachers and Students
Value Added Effect
For example, Terry Hibpshman, of the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board, did an in-depth review of value-added models and concludes that even though VAM has been implemented in some locations (Tennessee, and Dallas), the methodologies "should not be considered mature or well-formed at this point in its history." Dr. Hibpshman goes on to explain that VAM models, by their very nature, are extremely complex, and unless one understands the statistical nature of these models, people are quick to make policy decisions